All the King's Horses: A Tenipuri Fairytale
by Deltree
Summary: When Ryoma wakes up to his best friend kissing him he knows something’s wrong. Now he’s stuck in a world of fairytales where the people seem determined to marry him off to Momo and name him King. How the heck is he gonna get home? MomoRyo
1. Awaking Sleeping Beauty

Title: All the King's Horses: A Tenipuri Fairytale

Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or its characters.

Warnings: Yaoi, language

Pairings: Mainly MomoRyo, but also InuiKai, Golden Pair, and TezuFuji and maybe a few others on the sides. Try and guess which couple goes with which fairytale!

Summary: When Ryoma wakes up to his best friend kissing him he knows something's wrong. The rest of his day only cements this fact. Now he's stuck in a world of princes and spells where the people seem determined to marry him off to Momo and name him King. How the heck is he gonna get home?

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Chapter #1: Awaking Sleeping Beauty

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The first thing Ryoma was conscious of was the soft feel of lips pressing lightly against his. Frowning, Ryoma tried to move away from the offending lips, batting a hand at the person leaning over him and turning over in his bed to pull the covers over his head and go back to sleep.

There was a loud laugh at this and then Momo's loud voice came, saying, "It worked! It actually worked!"

Ryoma groaned and tried to huddle further under his blankets. He wished Momo would go away and leave him alone to sleep. How had Momo gotten into his bedroom anyways?

"Hey!" There was a heavy hand shaking Ryoma roughly by the shoulder, clearly determined to have him awake. "Hey, Prince Ryoma!" Momo continued far too loudly for this time of morning, "You can wake up now! The curse's gone!"

"Momo-senpai," Ryoma grumbled, not moving from his huddled position under his blankets, "Go away."

But Momo clearly wasn't listening. "Hey!" he said again, still far too loudly as he shook Ryoma by the shoulder again. "Didn't you hear me? You can wake up now!"

Ryoma decided to ignore him to snuggle deeper into his blankets, already halfway back to sleep.

"Geez," Momo grumbled from above him and slightly to the left as Momo finally took his hand off of Ryoma's shoulder. "After sleeping for over 200 years, you'd think you'd be a little more excited to be awake."

At this, Ryoma woke completely and finally sighed. Clearly Momo wasn't going to go away until Ryoma acknowledged him in some way. So, pulling the blanket back from over his head, Ryoma sat up and glared at his best friend. "Momo-senpai," he snapped, "What do you—Ryoma stopped here as he finally realized both his surroundings and just what Momo was wearing.

He seemed to be in the middle of some round castle room, the walls made of ancient grey blocks and covered by moth-eaten red tapestries depicting scenes from some kind of battle. He was seated in the middle of the most luxurious, if dusty, bed Ryoma had ever seen, hidden behind dark red draperies and covered in a mountain of blankets. Momo himself was wearing a ridiculously expensive looking outfit in dark blue suede with golden tassels at the shoulders and shiny gold buttons all the way down the front. He was smiling his familiar wide grin and looking at Ryoma as if all of his Christmases and birthdays had come at once.

Ryoma blinked. "Momo-senpai?" he asked, more than confused.

Momo looked confused in return and actually looked around as if to try and find another person in the small room. Finally he turned to Ryoma and blinked. "I'm sorry. Are you talking to me?"

Now Ryoma looked at him as if he were crazy. "Who else would I be talking to? The wall?"

"Well, true," Momo allowed, "Nobody here, but us so far. But my name's not Momo-senpai. It's Prince Takeshi of Momoshiro." And here Momo smiled that familiar wide grin again and quickly went through a grand bow. "Also known," he said as he came back up, still grinning that grin, "as your future husband-to-be."

Hearing this, Ryoma just stared at Momo for a long moment. Then he stared at the draperies. Then at the walls. Then he shut his eyes tight and pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is all a dream," he muttered to himself, "A crazy dream. You will wake up in five seconds and everything will be back to normal."

"Hey," Momo said and when Ryoma looked back up at him he could see that Momo was frowning. "What are you talking about.?" Momo asked.

"This," Ryoma said impatiently, making a wide gesture to include the whole room. "None of this is real."

Still Momo frowned. "What? But of course this is real. What else—Momo abruptly stopped. "Oh," he said. Suddenly Momo seemed to understand and he got this annoyingly sympathetic look on his face as he continued, "Look. I know you've been asleep for a long time." Here Momo stopped to apparently stress this fact. "A really long time. And I mean _really_. You're pretty much ancient by now." But then, seeming to remember his purpose, he continued, "But you're awake now. This isn't a dream. The curse really is over." And then Momo smiled this stupid kind smile as if Ryoma was some cute little kid in need of comforting.

Ryoma scowled. "What curse?"

That thankfully wiped the smile off Momo's face and the older boy frowned. "The curse," he said as if it were strange that Ryoma didn't know what he was talking about. "You know, the sleeping curse. It's over."

"Curses don't exist," Ryoma said irritably. He didn't even want to know why he needed to explain this. This really was a strange dream.

Momo's frown deepened. "Um, yeah. They do. How else would you explain how you and your entire kingdom fell asleep for over 200 years without aging a day?"

"Easy," Ryoma said. "They didn't. I don't even have a kingdom."

"But they did," Momo said, "And you do. You just weren't there to see the curse, what with you falling asleep and all that. But you and your kingdom have been asleep for a _really_ long time. It's become like a challenge for princes everywhere to try and get past the thick wall of roses that guard this place and get to you."

"Right," Ryom said, crossing his arms over his chest irritably and giving Momo a don't-be-stupid look. "And what are they supposed to do once they get to me? That seems like kind of a stupid challenge."

Here Momo seemed to get a little uncomfortable, putting a hand on the back of his neck and looking at the floor. "Um, well, they're kind, of, um, supposed to kiss you to see if you'll, you know, wake up."

"Kiss me?" Ryoma asked, a look of disgust settling over his features even as he remembered the feel of soft lips breaking through his sleeping trance. "You kissed me?! Pervert!" Ryoma threw one of his many pillows at the older boy.

"Hey!" Momo exclaimed as he dodged the thrown pillow and then dodged the next. "Hey! It's not like I was the one who designed the curse, you know. I only broke it."

"By kissing me," Ryoma said, still sounding mad. That would have been his first kiss too and Momo had stolen it. Bastard.

But this was just a dream. So, taking a deep breath, Ryoma tried to settle down and stopped throwing away his pillows, actually hugging the latest one close to his chest as he continued with a scowl, "And there's no such thing as curses so you must have just kissed me because you could."

Now Momo was starting to look a little irritated. "I keep telling you. Curses do exist and you were under one."

And that was all Ryoma could take of this. "This is stupid," Ryoma declared. "There's no such thing as curses and I'm gonna wake up any minute now." Looking down at his arm, Ryoma selected a nice patch of skin and firmly pinched himself. It hurt and he closed his eyes, fully confident that when he opened his eyes he'd be back in his own bedroom, Karupin by his side, and late for tennis practice. Opening his eyes to find himself still in the same room, with the weirdly dressed Momo staring at him stupidly, Ryoma scowled and turned back to his arm to pinch harder.

"Come on," he murmured to himself as he pinched himself again and again. "Wake up already."

A hand closing over his arm gently prevented him from trying again and Ryoma looked up irritably to find Momo looking down at him in some concern.

"You need to stop that," Momo said softly. "This isn't a dream and you aren't going to wake up. Accept it and move on."

Ryoma scowled. "This is a dream. There's no way reality could be this stupid. It all sounds like some kind of fairytale."

"Well I don't know what a fairytale is," Momo said, still looking at him in some concern, but taking his hand away, "But, this really is real. I don't get why you'd think otherwise. Don't you remember your life before the curse?"

"Yes," Ryoma snapped, "And I definitely wasn't a prince then. And you weren't either."

Momo went back to looking confused. "Are you saying you knew me before you fell asleep?"

"Yes!"

Momo frowned. "But that's impossible. I've never seen you before in my life. Maybe you were dreaming?"

"I wasn't dreaming," Ryoma began angrily, "I—But here he stopped and slowly took a deep breath in and out. This wasn't getting him anywhere. Maybe he should just go along with the stupid dream and wait for when he would wake up for real. "Fine," he said. "Fine. Whatever. I'm a prince. I've been asleep for two centuries. Now what?"

Momo didn't look completely convinced by Ryoma's sudden change of heart, but answered anyway. "Well I don't really know. I wasn't really expecting it to work in the first place. But the stories say we get married though."

"Married!" Ryoma exclaimed. "I'm not marrying _you_!"

Momo looked insulted. "And why not? I'll have you know I'm a good catch. I'm handsome, smart, charming, athletic—

"Modest," Ryoma interrupted, giving Momo an unimpressed look.

Momo didn't seem to realize that he was being sarcastic. "Yeah! That too!"

Ryoma rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Doesn't mean I want to marry you," he said and pushed aside his pillow to start to get out of his giant bed. The stone floor beneath his bare feet was cold and he finally got a good look at what he was wearing. It appeared to be satin pajamas in a soft violet color.

"What the hell am I wearing?" he asked.

Still looking a little insulted that Ryoma didn't want to marry him, Momo barely looked at what he was wearing before saying a terse, "Clothes," and continuing, "And I'll have you know that it wasn't just luck that you woke up when I kissed you. Only your soul mate could do that. So we _need_ to get married." Then, a bit petulantly, "You should want to get married too. Not just me."

Ryoma just looked at him, barely tolerant. "I don't believe in soul mates." And then he went to try and explore the room a little. He wanted a better look at one of those tapestries.

"What?!" Momo asked, snapping out of his anger, as he followed Ryoma's movements with his eyes and looked more than a little surprised. "But you're one of the Fabled Princes! You _have_ to believe in soul mates!"

That had sounded like a formal name. Ryoma looked back at Momo curiously. "What's a Fabled Prince?"

"They're one of the princes that have gone through spells and curses and dealt with fairy godmothers and evil stepmoms. You know, they're the ones you can tell stories about," Momo explained impatiently, still looking like he couldn't believe Ryoma didn't believe in that soul mate rubbish. Then he kind of blinked and actually seemed to consider Ryoma. "But I guess they're kind of a modern thing so I suppose it's okay that you don't know about them."

Ryoma rolled his eyes again. Well, okay. As long as he had Momo's _permission_.

"Usually after the princes get done dealing with all the evil stepmoms and stuff they get married though," Momo said, continuing, "So that's why we need to get married."

Fingering the thinning material of the tapestries, Ryoma was about to open his mouth and ask why anybody would want to marry somebody they barely even knew, when the door to the tiny room flew open and Ryoma's parents burst into the room, wearing the clothes Ryoma imagined a King and Queen would wear.

"Ryoma!" his mom cried, rushing over to him to grab him up into a crushing hug as best she could in that huge dress.

"Mom!" Ryoma yelped and tried to escape her hold.

"Seishounen! You're awake!" his father exclaimed, clapping him on the back enthusiastically even as Ryoma's mother continued to squeeze the life out of him.

"Mom," Ryoma said, trying to get his mother to let go, "Mom, I can't breathe."

"Oh I'm just so happy!" Rinko exclaimed, finally letting her son go, but holding him by the shoulders so that she could get a good look at him. "The curse is finally over! I don't even know what year it is yet, but who really cares, right? Are you okay? No permanent damage or anything?"

"Um," Momo spoke up hesitantly, "It's 1635. You know, just so you know. And you might want to have a look at him. He's acting kind of strange." Then he went back to being silent.

But now he had both of Ryoma's parents' attention.

"Are you the boy that broke the curse?" Rinko asked curiously as she turned to Momo and finally let Ryoma go. Ryoma took a good few steps away from her just in case she was of the mind to hug him again. He wasn't used to his mother being so excited to see him. She was usually so controlled.

Nanjiroh was looking Momo over skeptically. "Don't look like much."

Momo looked insulted and like he was about to say something that he would probably regret later, but Rinko broke in before he could say anything.

"But I suppose we owe you a thank you," she said, smiling. "And a welcome to the family." Going over to him, Rinko gathered Momo's tall form into another crushing hug. "I can already tell that I'm going to like having you for a son-in-law," she said happily.

Momo smiled at this and returned the hug with equal enthusiasm. "And I can already tell that I'm going to like having you for a mother-in-law."

Rinko smiled again as she pulled away from Momo. "Aww. Aren't you the sweet one?"

"See?" Momo couldn't help but say to Ryoma. "At least _she_ likes me."

Rinko turned to Ryoma in concern upon hearing this. "Ryoma? Don't you like him? He broke the curse!"

Ryoma crossed his arms over his chest again irritably and repeated for what had to be the millionth time, "There's no such thing as curses."

That just made both Rinko and Nanjiroh look at him, Rinko in concern and Nanjiroh as if he had suddenly gone mad.

"Dear," Rinko began slowly, "You've known about curses since you were born. I mean, we may not have told you what would happen if you touched a tennis racket, but there was all that commotion over in the Shinji Kingdom about the muttering curse and then there was the Tezuka's and that horrible aging curse."

"The last Prince of Tezuka looked like a thirty year old man," Nanjiroh put in. "And he was only 15." Blinking, he turned to his wife to ask, "Do you think they're still affected by that?"

"Yes, exactly," Rinko said, ignoring her husband's question as she watched Ryoma closely. "Don't you remember any of that?"

"No," Ryoma said bluntly. "I don't because it never happened. This is all a dream."

"He's been saying that ever since he woke up," Momo told his parents. "He even tried to hurt himself just to wake himself up."

This just made Ryoma's mother look all the more concerned. "Ryuuzaki-san never said anything about this when she changed the death curse."

Momo looked a little shocked by this. "Death curse? But I thought it was only a sleeping curse."

"Yes, well the curse was actually first meant to completely kill Ryoma. Ryuuzaki-san changed it so that he and everyone else would only go to sleep instead," Rinko said, turning to Momo to explain, but then she smiled. "At least until his soul mate came and kissed him."

Momo smiled in return.

Ryoma ignored this byplay, still looking irritated. "And what does any of that have to do with me touching a tennis racket? I play tennis all the time."

Turning back to her son, Rinko looked horrified by this. "No, you don't. You've never played that game once in your life."

"Well, he had to at least once," Nanjiroh said nonchalantly, "The curse _was_ activated, after all."

Ryoma was starting to look confused. "What does tennis have to do with me falling asleep for two centuries?"

This Momo answered. "Apparently you first fell asleep when you picked up a tennis racket and tried to play a game against a prince from the Shinji Kingdom. The strings on the racket broke and hurt you and, you know," Momo shrugged, "activated the curse."

Rinko was nodding along as Momo explained. "Yes," she said. "Don't you remember that? We told you never to play tennis, but you never did listen to us. We even had that stupid game banned from the kingdom and you still went ahead and played it." Now she was starting to get mad. "What on Earth were you thinking? We told you never to play that game! And now look where you've gotten us. Asleep for two centuries! I should rightly ground you for the rest of your life for that!"

Ryoma's confusion was still there, but so was his fear of his mother's wrath. "I'm . . . I'm sorry," he said softly, not really knowing why he was apologizing, but wanting her to stop yelling at him. He had to remember this was still a dream. His mother wasn't actually going to ground him for the rest of his life because he played a game of tennis.

Rinko made a sound of disgust, but waved his apology off. "No. We should have told you why you weren't allowed to play it. It's both our faults."

"But does this mean we can play tennis again?" Nanjiroh asked, starting to look a little excited. "The curse is broken after all and, even if it's not, we have this guy here—pointing to Momo—to wake the brat up if it happens again."

Rinko looked considering. "We'll see. We should probably first think about what we're going to say to our people now that we're all awake. We'll have to introduce, um," she looked to Momo, "I'm sorry. I haven't gotten your name. What kingdom are you from?"

Momo smiled, not insulted in the least. "Prince Takeshi from Momoshiro."

"Oh," Rinko frowned. "I haven't heard of that kingdom. It must be one of the new ones. But still!" she continued, not to be brought down. She smiled at him again. "Nice to meet you." Then she turned back to Nanjiroh and Ryoma as she continued, "And we should probably have the Healer look at Ryoma. It's not right that he thinks he's still asleep."

Nanjiroh nodded thoughtfully and Ryoma just looked irritated. When was this dream going to end already?

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TBC?


	2. Telling the People

Title: All the King's Horses: A Tenipuri Fairytale

Disclaimer: I don't own Prince of Tennis or its characters.

Warnings: Yaoi, language

Pairings: Mainly MomoRyo, but also InuiKai, Golden Pair, and TezuFuji and maybe a few others on the sides. Try and guess which couple goes with which fairytale!

Summary: When Ryoma wakes up to his best friend kissing him he knows something's wrong. The rest of his day only cements this fact. Now he's stuck in a world of princes and spells where the people seem determined to marry him off to Momo and name him King. How the heck is he gonna get home?

AN: And I wanted to say thank you to all the people that reviewed including stringer13, Earthlight, Khelc-sul Renai, Loving Monday, animehphantom, F. A. Starhawk, Nivell, izakinha, and LaVenDaRxXxHiMaWaRi. Thanks! Sorry it took so long to get this next part out.

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Chapter #2: Telling the People

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Ryoma's parents led the way down the staircase of the tower they seemed to be in and over to the main section of the castle before telling Ryoma that he should change out of his bedclothes and into something a bit more appropriate for being in public and then left him to find his way to his bedroom by himself. At least that's where Ryoma assumed he was supposed to be going. People kept their clothes in their bedrooms, right?

So, not having any better idea other than to keep going along with this crazy dream, Ryoma looked around the large hallway he had been abandoned in and tried to figure out which direction he was supposed to be going in. He steadfastly ignored the thought that usually in dreams, no matter how crazy, he would have already _known_ which direction he should be going in. Eventually, due to no real logical reason, he decided on left and resolutely headed off in that direction.

Wandering down the hallway, he peeked into the first door he came across and found what looked like a sitting room on the other side. The next room revealed a bedroom, but a bedroom that he definitely hoped was not his. It was pink.

And so his search went on. Door after door he came to and not one yielded anything that looked like it could be his bedroom. Of course, he had no real idea what his bedroom even looked like so it was entirely possible he had passed it without even knowing. Eventually, he ran out of rooms and had to retrace his steps back to his original position before heading off in the opposite direction. This direction led him even further and was a slight bit more confusing. He turned corners and chose random directions when he came to crossroads. Eventually, he was well and truly lost. Increasingly irritated, Ryoma eventually decided to screw it, he would wear the stupid purple pajamas, and started his quest to just get back to where he had started. And apparently he was successful because he heard his mother's voice calling to him from down the hall.

"Ryoma! Why aren't you dressed?" Rinko asked as she approached, wearing the same dress and looking mildly irritated at his failure to change his clothes. "We're going to be speaking to the public soon and you know you can't go out dressed like that."

Ryoma just looked at her, barely keeping his irritation at bay. "I can't find my room," he said flatly.

"What?" Now his mother just looked concerned. "You forgot where it was?"

Deciding against telling her that he'd never known where it was in the first place because this was just some crazy dream, Ryoma simply nodded.

Rinko looked at him for a long moment after that confession then pointed off to the side and said, "It's right down that hallway, third door on the left. The one with the blue and green draperies." She paused a second then continued, "Are you going to be okay with dressing yourself?"

At that, Ryoma looked entirely unimpressed. "I forgot some things. I'm not mentally retarded."

"Well, alright," Rinko allowed though she didn't look any less concerned, "But do you know how to get to the balcony?"

Ryoma was silent for a minute after she asked this, but then had to admit, "Not really."

Rinko just nodded as if she had suspected that. "Then I guess I'll wait for you here," she said before waving him off. "Go. Go get dressed. We don't have much time."

Rolling his eyes, Ryoma still obeyed and went off to get dressed. Following her directions, he was soon walking through the door to his room and, as he looked around it, he had to admit it wasn't that bad even if it was still incredibly dusty from years of disuse. The room itself was massive with a large King sized bed off to the side covered in obviously expensive bedclothes and draperies, an elaborate rug taking up most of the floor space, and a sturdy wooden desk sitting in the corner next to two large bookshelves. There were two doors, which he checked to find that one led to an expansive and luxurious bathroom and the other led to a large walk-in closet filled with princely looking clothes. Pulling one of the shirts out to look at it, Ryoma blew on it, received a face full of dust for his trouble, and made a disgusted face. There was no way he was wearing anything that dusty. But, with a quick perusal of the closet, Ryoma was dismayed to discover that it seemed like almost everything in there was equally, if not more, covered in dust. Some were even riddled with holes from moths And he had to _wear_ one of these things?

But he knew his mother wouldn't be happy until he was dressed more appropriately so Ryoma dug down even further in the closet in search of something that had been better protected from the years. Eventually he found a rather simple grey button up that was almost militaristic in style and a pair of dark blue pants that very nearly refrained from molding to his thighs. They were lightly dusty, but that was easily fixed with a swipe of his hand. Looking at himself in the mirror, Ryoma tilted his head as he considered his reflection then shrugged. It was better than nothing.

Exiting his bedroom, Ryoma wandered back to join his mother who, upon seeing him, gave him a critical frown before declaring, "Well I suppose that's alright for now."

After that it was a quick walk to where his father, Momo, and what seemed to be two trumpeters were waiting. Momo had a look of half-dead boredom on his face as Nanjiroh related, in great detail, some his old stories from his youth.

"And let me tell you. Those were the days. I don't know what it's like nowadays, but back then you could buy an etching with a simple promise. You couldn't do that once the boy was born. Nothing was ever the same after the boy was born. Little brat. Once upon a time I could—

"Dear, shut up," Rinko said kindly, interrupting her husband midsentence.

Blinking rapidly as he seemed to realize that Nanjiroh had finally stopped talking, Momo seemed to come out of his daze and turned to Ryoma and his mother. "Oh. Hi."

Rinko smiled at the boy and asked, "Are you ready to be introduced?"

Momo smiled back, obviously just relieved to not have to listen to Nanjiroh's stories anymore. "Past ready."

"Good," was Rinko's answer to that and then she walked forward and opened the doors to the balcony. Following her out, Ryoma found himself on a wide veranda that stood over a large clearing filled with people of all types. The crowd was loud and not paying the balcony any attention whatsoever so Nanjiroh nodded at the trumpeters and waited until the loud tune called all of the crowd's attention to the small group on the balcony.

Stepping forward, Nanjiroh raised his voice so he was nearly shouting. "Greetings, citizens of Echizen!" There was a loud cheer and then Ryoma's father continued on, "I understand that many of you are confused. You may have fallen asleep in a strange position or strange area at a different time of day. You probably have no idea what may have caused that and may be feeling somewhat panicky. But let me just assure you that everything is okay. You are safe and you have probably already ascertained that everybody is alive. Is that correct?"

A long moment of murmuring amongst the crowd and then a few of the louder citizens yelled out an affirmation or seven.

"Good!" Nanjiroh said, still loudly and with a growing smile. "And I suppose you all want an explanation?"

Another loud cheer of affirmation from the crowd.

"Alright! And I suppose I can give you one. You have all probably heard about the curse put on our young Prince when he was very young. Well that curse has come to pass. Somehow, in an event outside anyone's control, the Prince was presented with a tennis racket and was injured as was foretold. And, of course, upon being injured the curse was activated thus sending him and everyone in the kingdom to sleep until the Prince's soul mate could come and break the curse."

It was really rather strange. Ryoma had never known his father to be any good at public speaking. And he had certainly never, ever, heard him speak so intelligently. But of course this was a dream, so that made some semblance of sense at least.

"I do not want to alarm any of you," Nanjiroh continued, "but it has become apparent that the Prince's soul mate took much longer than was anticipated to arrive."

"Geez," Momo grumbled under his breath. "I got here as soon as I could. It wasn't exactly easy, you know. Where's the gratitude?"

Hearing this, Ryoma looked up at the other boy and smirked.

"Please be calm," Nanjiroh continued still, "but the year is 1635, almost exactly 200 yrs since we first feel asleep."

The crowd really didn't like that, which made sense. There were shouts and loud cries and the crowd struggled against each other in their bid to be heard.

"Quiet!" Nanjiroh called.

No one listened. If anything they got louder.

"I said QUIET!" Nanjiroh yelled and that apparently shocked everyone into silence. "Thank you!" he said at a more normal level. "I know that this is may be upsetting. I'm sure there are many of us who had family outside the kingdom and it is normal to be shocked at a loss of so many years. But there will be much work to be done in the following days to ensure that our kingdom continues to thrive and we all must work together and keep our calm if we want to be successful. It can be done though and it will be done. The Kingdom of Echizen was once a great power and it will be great again!" Here, Nanjiroh raised his voice once more as he finished the motivational part of his long speech and the crowd burst into cheers once more.

Waiting until the cheers died down, Nanjiroh eventually called again for silence. "And on a more positive note," he started with a huge smile, "there will be a royal wedding in our immediate future to look forward to. Two kingdoms will be joined and there will be a new addition to the Echizen family."

As his father started rambling on about how great the new wedding and future will be, Ryoma, who had been settling into an accepting calm where he was content to just wait until he woke up, really started to feel just the tiniest bit freaked out. He didn't _want_ to marry Momo. Why on Earth was he dreaming about it?

"And so, without further ado, I'd like to introduce my future son-in-law, Prince Takeshi of Momoshiro!"

Here Momo stepped forward to take his place next to Nanjiroh with a wide grin as the cheers started again. Waving cheerfully to the crowd, he was obviously reveling in the moment. He always did like being popular just a bit too much.

"Go on!" his mother hissed as she pushed at Ryoma insistently.

"What?" Ryoma asked, looking back at her in confusion.

"Go!" she repeated. "Get up there with your fiancé!"

"My _what_?!" Ryoma yelped, but she had already pushed him forward and he found himself at the railing of the balcony, faced with the increasing cheers of the crowd. Staring at the mass of cheering people with wide eyes, Ryoma froze.

"C'mon!" Momo said, grabbing his hand and making it wave. "Smile!"

Deciding he'd gone along with this dream so far so he might as well continue, Ryoma mustered up a weak smile and started to wave under his own power. He hated crowds.

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Later, after the cheering had died down and Ryoma, his family, and Momo had gone back inside, Rinko was off trying to figure out if a Royal banquet was even possible with the supplies and food they had while Nanjiroh was meeting with his advisors and various informants to try and figure out just what was going on with the kingdom at large. They had sent Ryoma back to his room and told him to wait there for the Royal Healer, who would be sent as soon as they found him. Momo had been set up with his own room, but, like every room in castle, it was still covered in dust and in desperate need of a scrub by the castle maid and so he had decided to stick around his fiancé in Ryoma's room.

"Y'know," Momo began as he looked around the room casually. "You'd think that if a spell could put thousands of people to sleep and keep them from aging even a day it could keep everything from collecting so much dust and dirt too."

Ryoma, seated on the large bed, gave Momo an irritated look at that, but didn't say anything.

"You're gonna have to get new books," Momo noticed as he wandered over to the bookcases and read over the titles. "These are probably falling apart by now."

Ryoma gave Momo one more glance then purposefully looked away. He wasn't even going to honor that with a response.

"I haven't even heard of most of these," Momo continued, still over at the bookshelf. "I mean, these must be _ancient_. Geez."

Ryoma still said nothing, determinedly keeping his eyes on the door. Where was that Healer?

"And you're gonna have to learn two centuries worth of history and politics, you know?" Momo said conversationally as he wandered back over to Ryoma's side. Ryoma could practically feel him there, but didn't look. "I could probably help with that if you want. I mean, history isn't exactly my strong suit, but I probably know it better than you."

At that, Ryoma had to close his eyes and put a hand to his temples. It was a little much that he was apparently supposed to look to Momo for tutoring help in this dream. Why would this dream not end? Shouldn't his alarm be going off by now?

"Hey, you have a headache?" Momo asked, looking at Ryoma in concern as he carefully took a seat nearby.

"No. No, I'm fine," Ryoma answered irritably.

Momo just looked at him for a long moment then asked cautiously, "Do you still think you're dreaming?"

At that, Ryoma glanced at Momo out of the corner of his eyes then turned back to his watch of the door. "What do you think?"

Momo huffed out a breath. "Well that's not good. You've been awake for a while now. I was for sure it would just go away once you got used to reality again."

"This is not reality," Ryoma had to insist at that because, really. This was just getting to be too much. "Reality doesn't have spells and curses and - and _castles_. This doesn't even look like _Japan_."

At that Momo looked somewhat curious. "What's Japan?"

Unable to believe Momo had honestly just asked that, Ryoma stared at him for a moment. "It's the name of our _country_," he finally said.

Momo frowned slightly. "Our country's name is Seigaku."

Ryoma blinked then frowned in return. "No . . ." he said slowly. "That's the name of our school."

"Why would you name a school Seigaku?" Momo asked, obviously confused.

"It's short for Seishun Gakuen," Ryoma replied.

"Oh," Momo replied though he obviously still didn't get it. There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence, thankfully broken by a knock on the door.

"Your Majesty?" a voice called from the other side.

"Yeah?" Ryoma called back casually and Momo gave him a strange look.

"May I . . . May I come in?" the voice asked hesitantly.

"Sure!" Ryoma said and then waited for the Healer to enter.

The door opened to allow entrance to an old man carrying a rather heavy looking case. Walking slowly over to the side of the bed Ryoma sat on, the old man made a short bow and introduced himself, "My name's Seitarou, your Majesty. The Healer. Admittedly I've known you since you were a young boy, but I've been told you've been suffering some forgetfulness lately. Is that right?"

Ryoma frowned at him suspiciously, unsure about what his answer should be.

But Momo took the choice out of his hands before he could make a decision. "He keeps saying that this is a dream and he's going to wake up soon," Momo explained. "And his memory seems to be really messed up. He says he knew me from before when that's impossible and then he seems to think the country's named something like Joppen."

"Japan," Ryoma muttered sullenly.

"Yeah. That," Momo said.

Seitarou frowned and gave Ryoma a considering look. Then he turned to Momo and said, "Thank you for your help, your Majesty. I'm sure it'll be most useful. But if I may ask you to wait outside? My examinations must be made in private."

Momo nodded and jumped off the bed. "Of course." He waved at Ryoma and made to leave the room. "See you later, okay?"

Then he was gone and Ryoma was left alone with a strange man.

"Now," Seitarou said as he took out a foreign looking tool from his case. "Let's see about you, shall we?"

And Ryoma had to wonder how his subconscious knew so much about Medieval medical care when he could honestly care less about the subject. Because this check-up? It was _not _standard to the 21st century.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

TBC.


End file.
